Farmer, 68, bound and raped farmhand 'daughter'

THE Cairns Supreme Court has heard harrowing details of how an El Arish farmer bound and raped his farmhand, before he stabbed and slashed her throat.

John Phillip McDonald left the woman, who was terrified, holding her chin to her chest to stem the flow of blood.

Yesterday he was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to rape, malicious act with intent and drug offences in January 2015.

McDonald, 68, and the woman, then 32, had been close friends. She thought of him as a father figure. She had worked on his Granadilla farm and resided in his home.

The night before she was planning to fly to Darwin to be with an ex-boyfriend he snapped in a fit of jealousy, bound her hands with cable ties and used belts to restrain her to his bed. McDonald sexually assaulted her. She told him to stop but he continued.